The Return
by Loki In The TARDIS
Summary: Loki escapes captivity and returns to earth where he plans to lie low until he can make a plan. But things don't turn out quite as he had expected when he ends up tangled up in the life of a Midgardian. Takes place between the Avengers and Thor 2. Rated just in case for possible future violence. I hope you enjoy.
1. Chapter 1

Loki looked down at the woman where she lay, sprawled under a mess of blankets on the couch. Her face seemed so peaceful in sleep. The lines that had etched through her skin were gone, and her hair fell in waves around her face. The anxiety that he was used to seeing there was gone, and for a moment he almost forgot she was a mortal. Almost. He knelt down and touched her face, gently, brushing away a few strands of hair that had fallen in her face. Now that the adrenaline and the chaos of the previous evening was over he felt a small amount of guilt for what he had put her through, but it passed quickly to be replaced by the cool apathy and resentment that had plagued him for months.

When the woman woke she was greeted by two cool green eyes. She blinked her own, trying to clear them of the last dregs of sleep.

"Good morning," he said softly. He was not smiling- she had yet to see him do so, but there was no trace of hostility in him now. Looking up at him, she found it hard to believe that mere months ago this was the man who had invaded this city with an army of other worldly beasts. She could well remember the day, and while she hadn't seen Loki himself, she had caught a distant glimpse of the "Avengers" from her apartment window, and certainly she'd seen the monsters Loki had brought in with him through the chasm in the sky.

Today, though, there seemed to be a disconnect in her mind. She simply couldn't associate that day's events with this face. She had imagined an angry, brooding beast of a man. Tall though he was, this man was thin and had a foreign elegance about him. And all she could see in his face was weariness, and was it… a little pain?

"Good morning," she answered shortly, turning her face away from him. She sat up and made to stand, but as she put her weight on her feet pain lanced up her left leg from her ankle. She gasped and began to fall, but a pair of arms caught her before she could crumple to the floor. She resisted the urge to push him away.

"Lie back down," Loki murmured. He guided the mortal woman back to the couch. She did as she as told and laid down across the cushions. She watched the trickster warily, but she had not the energy to try and make him leave her alone.

She had decided that she would be cautious. He seemed tame enough if left un-angered, and she didn't want to be the one to disrupt that. She had lain awake for long hours the night before, trying to think of a way out of this situation, but could see no way of getting away without arousing his suspicion. He was always watching. So for now she would wait. And watch.

Loki propped her left foot using some pillows she must have knocked to the ground in her sleep. She felt like a child again. How many times had she sat on the counter top or lain across the couch while her father pulled out splinters or helped her apply a Band-Aid to a new cut?

Loki reached out a hand and wrapped it around her ankle. She gasped. His hand was startlingly, bitingly cold.

"Is this some kind of magic?" she asked.

"Not quite," he said, not looking at her. He had put his other hand on her ankle too now, and seemed to be _icing_ it with his hands. She flinched at his touch.

"What are you, Jack Frost or something?" Looked like the sarcasm was back on. He raised an eyebrow at her.

There was a long silence as Loki worked before she finally broke.

"You know," she said, "I think I have ice packs in the fridge. Then you don't have to sit here like that." She looked at him expectantly. The whole situation was beginning to unnerve her.

"Excuse me, in the what?" he asked.

"The refridg- oh, sorry, you don't know," she said. How the heck did they keep things cold where he came from? She twisted around and pointed towards the kitchen. "See that tall white box thing?"

Loki nodded.

"That's the fridge."

Loki got up and crossed into the kitchen with a few long strides. Goodness, he was tall.

"Now just open it and the ice packs should be in a pocket on the inside of the door. Careful, though, it's going to be cold-" she stopped short as he pulled open the door, seemingly unphased by the blast of cold air. His eyes scanned the inside of the door and he pulled out a slightly squashy blue object.

"Is this it that you are looking for?" he asked, and held it up. She nodded and he brought it to her. She took it and held it to her ankle. It soothed her throbbing ankle, but she had to admit it didn't work quite as well as Loki's hands had been. She wondered, again, why they had been so cold, but dared not ask. He may seem calm now, but a man who had tried to subjugate the human race probably would feel no qualms in killing one mortal woman. What had he called her? Midgardian, that was it.

Quite suddenly Loki stood and strode away from the woman. He stopped before the wide floor to ceiling window that made up most of the wall. From here he was afforded a magnificent view of the street far below. He could even snatch a glimpse of central park in the distance. The city was already wide awake and buzzing with cars and people.

The woman twisted on the couch to watch him. He looked quite thin without the layers of metal and leather he had worn the night before. He wore only a lose fitting green shirt and his pants and boots.

"You never told me your name, Midgardian," Loki said without turning, hands clasped behind his back.

"Vera," she said.

He didn't answer.


	2. Chapter 2

_One Day Before_

Loki stared up at the ceiling. It was dreadfully dull in this hot, muggy room. The Asgardian sun had not let up for days now, and of course, no one had thought "the prisoner" might be hot. That is what he had come to call himself: "the prisoner"- sequestered away in these distant chambers under the twenty-four-seven supervision of half a dozen guards outside the door. Not that it was some dark dirty dungeon he was in. The Asgardians had a bit more class than that. In fact the room was not so unlike the one he had inhabited when he was still welcome here. Smaller, yes. Lacking in his own unique style, yes, but still he had a large comfortable bed, a table, a dresser and chairs. There was even a window through which he had a view of half of the kingdom.

_Half of what was my kingdom,_ he thought bitterly. When Thor brought him back those months ago he had half expected to be thrown into the prison of glass walls where Asgard's worst criminals were kept, yet here he lay. Apparently the wise and brave Odin couldn't bare to see his precious "son" locked in such a place.

Not that this room was particularly interesting. Odin could have at least brought him something else to do. The more he thought about it, though, the more he realized- this was his true punishment. Odin had left him here alone with nothing but his thoughts, letting him dwell on his failure. The thought filled him with sudden anguish, and he rolled over and sat up on the side of the bed, the back of his lose shirt sticking to his perspiration. He simply sat there for a few moments and tried to calm his mind. A torrent of images were crashing through his head- the old man standing up at Stuttgart, Agent Romanoff talking to him in his glass cage, that green beast scooping him off of the ground, the cold bite of the muzzle, falling into an abyss...

Loki stood and wiped sweat from his brow. He went to the door and rapped on it with his knuckles.

"I need to relieve myself," he announced shortly. He waited. There were clinking noises and the door was pulled half open. The strong-jawed thickset face of one of his captors peered at him suspiciously. Loki gave him an impatient look. The guard narrowed his eyes but opened the door. "The prisoner" followed him down the hall.

The bathroom was a minute's walk from his chambers. The entire walk Loki could see how tense the guards were. There was a sort of magic in the building that was supposed to prevent any prisoner from performing any magic within the walls of his room. Loki was no ordinary prisoner, though. He did have a limited range of magic at his fingertips, unbeknownst to anyone but himself.

Loki glanced around, and the two guards twitched in alarm. Loki grinned. He knew it would only cause the guards more anxiety. They may not have known he could perform magic, but they still had the wits to know to fear him. It was one of the few pleasures he got out of his existence anymore- scaring the guards. Pathetic.

_No plans for escape today, though_, he thought as he let himself into the washroom and closed the door on a guard's face. He mulled over the possibilities while he took care of his business and scrubbed his hands in a basin outside the door. It would have been easy enough if only he had his powers at full. He was far more clever than all his captors put together, and yet he couldn't free himself.

He began to dry his hands on a towel. He had spent hours in his room testing the limits of his magic, and it had been most disappointing to find that he could only sustain one duplicate of himself at a time. Anyways, that was now his best known trick. Thor had made sure of that after Loki had used the trick to kill the mortal man on Midgard. And it was too much to assume they were stupid enough to be fooled by two Loki's while one was clearly trying to-

Loki froze. An idea, a glorious idea had struck him. His face split into a grin no one could see. Quite suddenly he let his face go blank and his hand drying adopted a mechanical pattern. He concentrated. Out of the corner of his eye he saw himself vaporize into existence behind the guards. The_ other_ Loki began creeping down the hall, stepping lightly and casting back glances every few steps.

He had made it several yards down the hall when one of the guards glanced around. He let out a bellow that nearly made the real Loki jump.

"Look! This one must be a duplicate!"

The guard raised his spear and charged down the hall after the other Loki who was now sprinting down the hall, laughing. Loki stayed where he was for a moment before taking off in the opposite direction. He knew this wouldn't last long. He couldn't maintain the other Loki for long without the proper concentration, and right now his attention was focused on finding an exit. Sure enough, after a few seconds he felt the magic ebb and heard the roar that meant the guard was coming the other way.

The next few minutes were a blur of stone hallways. He really had no idea where he was going and was silently hoping to find an exit. He ran into no one in the halls which he found rather peculiar, but didn't dwell on it. At last he pushed his way through a door and found himself bathed in sunlight. He took a couple staggering steps and had to blink furiously against the sudden onslaught on his eyes.

He fled the building, and as he passed over the path bordering the prison a sudden tingling, almost electrical, surge passed through every nerve in his body, making him shiver in ecstasy. He almost laughed out loud in triumph. The magic was back and he had never felt so alive.

Loki's guard barely had time to catch a glimpse of the God of Mischief before he vanished, seemingly into thin air.


End file.
